


Field Exercise

by KivaEmber



Series: Bonds Universe [11]
Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Bond-verse, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Established Relationship, Gore, M/M, Male Slash, Survival Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 17:06:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1907037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/pseuds/KivaEmber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be a field training exercise; them babysitting the new recruits because Otome thought they needed a day off. Yamato even left his phone on the monitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning of the Nightmare

Hibiki woke up with a noise better suited for a wounded animal.

The air was dry, that was the first thing his sluggish mind registered –the next was the blinding agony lancing up his spine to settle somewhere between his temples, thrumming and pounding like the beat of the drum against the insides of his skull. It shocked him enough that he sucked in a breath between his clenched teeth, and it  _hurt_ , and then he was aware of  _copper_. Thick and heavy. Blood. Blood in his mouth.

His sharp inhale turned into a gurgle.

_What happened what happened think Kuze don’t panic even breaths now airway is still clear think and stay calm_

Stay calm. His airway was clear and he could still breathe. He tried to turn his head, enough so that he could spit out the blood in his mouth, but the entire left side of his face felt numb and stiff, and his neck even stiffer, so he only managed to move an inch before a fresh wave of pain overtook him, teasing another animal like whimper from him.

 _Stay calm_.

It was weird how those two words were in Yamato’s voice. Right. Yes. Yamato would stay calm. Hibiki clamped down on the burgeoning, instinctive panic, and tried to take stock. Take stock. His head was pounding and vision was blurry. He was probably concussed – as he woke up, he probably passed out too, ah, that was a bad sign. That suggested possible brain haemorrhage. His thoughts felt muddled too, tumbling over each other in disorganised order. Yep. Definitely concussed. At least clear headed enough to realise it.

Next. Blood on mouth. Bitten tongue? Internal injuries? It hurt to breathe, so maybe…

Hibiki inhaled again, and he nearly choked on it, but he inhaled, and he exhaled without suffocating. His lungs were fine. Broken ribs then. So if he was bleeding from the mouth, then maybe he had just bitten his tongue, knocked a tooth out, or damaged his stomach somehow.

His head felt a bit clearer with this clinical analysis, and he took a more confident breath this time, his eyes narrowing against the flaring agony. Okay. He was bashed to hell and back, but he concluded that he wasn’t going to die in the next twenty minutes, even if he felt like it. The thought of lying here, in agony, until he breathed his last from internal bleeding left a cold, alien chill down his back, and he quickly stifled that thought before it dug its claws into his mind.

 _Stay calm_.

Yeah, he can do that.

Okay, what happened? Biggest thing. Hibiki squinted past the black spots, seeing… the light was too dim where he was, but he could see heavy dust motes floating in the air – brick dust? That sparked something. Right. Right yes, him and Yamato, and a group of others – they were at, that place. Matsuo. Because…

Because, there was a reason, but Hibiki's brain was muddled up.

He remembered – that morning – was it that morning- yes, he remembered it. Yamato said to prepare for a field training exercise – “you’ll enjoy it,” he said with an unhappy look – and then, Hibiki had to, there was a dossier, and then, here, they took forever finding it though, because the driver of the truck got lost in the thick mist, and Yamato had been so irritated even if he didn’t let on

Then

 _Stay calm_.

Hibiki's memories slipped right between his fingers. Muddled up. Something –empty. The town had been empty. Full of mist. Hibiki made a ‘Silent Knoll’ joke. Yamato didn’t get the reference. Then, training exercise. A training exercise. Split the trainees into three groups, Hibiki and Yamato babysitting, as he said. Easy job – “Yanagiya said we needed a break,” Yamato had said with a slightly sulky tone – and Hibiki had prepared to kick back in central command – the truck- and listen to the men get spooked by imagination and mist

And

His head hurt.

There was a noise, beyond the dim light, and Hibiki froze, his breathing suddenly sounding too loud and fast to his ears. He strained, trying to hear, but there was nothing. Silent. That frightened him even more, because he didn’t spend seven years in JP’s without developing some sort of instincts, and right now every alarm in his head was screaming at him to jump up, cover, find cover, find phone, prepare Agidyne – creatures underground more susceptible to flame and will light up surroundings.

He couldn’t though. He just stayed still on the floor, like a petrified rabbit, listening, straining.

_Stay. Calm._

Hibiki felt his heart calm into something less panicky, and stifled the urge to let out a pitched laugh. A wheezing noise left him instead, too sharp and loud in the empty, dark air pressing around him. Keep thinking. Head was pounding, but keep thinking. Him and Yamato. Sitting in the truck. Hibiki made a joke about them being alone, he remembered-

He had waggled his eyebrows – “You know, we need a bit of spice in our life,” he had said with a purr, and Yamato had levelled him with a look of such utter and complete contempt before he’d drawled “How about I send you to deal with-” but he never finished that line because

Hibiki's brain stuttered to a halt. Because…?

Black spots swirled thicker in his vision, and Hibiki wondered where Yamato was right now. The man would never willingly abandon him in a position like this – had they separated at some point? Hibiki couldn’t remember. It was meant to be a field training exercise. A day off for them, because Yamato had been annoyed and amused over it. Him and Yamato, sitting in the back of the truck, babysitting, griping over Otome’s ‘Doctor’s orders’, bantering, words cruel but playful, Yamato threatening him with this or that duty.

There was another noise. Hibiki stilled again. It sounded again, and again, and again, coming closer and closer, and Hibiki managed to turn his head to the side in time to see gleams of white fangs and blazing yellow eyes.

 

* * *

 

Yamato was going to throttle whoever it was that deemed this place ‘safe’.

Abandoned towns and mines were usually teeming with demons, and usually, JP’s let them be until the population reached ‘unsafe levels’. Recently Matsuo had gone through a clean up. All but the weakest of demons cleared out, and the area had been deemed ‘safe’. Safe. Safe for training exercise. Safe for trainees to stumble about with limited demon summoning apps, to get them used to it, with the power levels turned down so they wouldn’t accidentally murder each other. It was supposed to be  _boring_.

Yamato shifted his weight, clenching his gloved hand into a fist as he peered around his edge of cover, eyes squinting through the gloom. There was one of the trainees on the ground, not far, neck bent at enough of an angle to see the white of bone gutting out in a pool of congealing blood. Yamato didn’t spare him a brief glance, trailing the arterial spray pattern on the wall down to the floor. Strike to the face hard enough to send the trainee’s head snapping around at almost 180 degrees.

He pressed his fingers against the floor, and gently pushed himself upwards and forwards in a swift movement. He strode down the dark corridor, stepping over the corpse, his boots clicking against the dusty surface. His hands were empty, he had been careless – Hibiki had made him careless. A simple, training exercise and Yamato had let his guard down, had listened to Hibiki – “Oh come on, you don’t need your phone for this,” he’d laughed, plucking it from his hands and setting it on one of the monitors.

His hands clenched loosely into fists again before he relaxed.

The hallway led into a public bath. The floors had probably been polished wood at some point, but all of it was rotted with damp and mould, and the smell was sickly sweet here. It was empty too, and Yamato made a disgusted noise, turning on his heel and marching back down the hallway and over the corpse again.

It was when he was by the exit that he felt it. That pressure, that itching on the edge of his senses, his instincts shrieking –and he ducked down, pressed against the doorframe, making himself as small and invisible as possible. All of his spiritual energy compressed tight into a ball, his dark clothing working to his advantage against the grimy, dull surfaces and dim lighting of the building.

Heavy breathing, alien and hissing, sound of something slithering and thumping through the green grass just outside. Yamato breathed slowly and calmly, waiting. After an eternity, the noises faded away, and that buzzing pressure that almost made him nauseous was gone.

He let out an exhale, the noise shaking and loud, and swiftly stood up and out of the doorway. The mist was thick and cloying, and he couldn’t even see the building only a few yards in front of him. He almost leapt out of his skin when something groaned in the distance – a building straining under a weight, before a shrill cry cut through and was swiftly silenced.

The noise hadn’t sounded like Hibiki's, so Yamato didn’t spare it another thought, marching resolutely through the fog and into the next building. Another trainee met him at its entrance. Spray of blood from a decapitated head, limbs eagle-spread and arm ripped until gleam of bone showed. He almost slipped on the blood when he stepped over it.

Two rooms down and the buzzing presence was back, suddenly, abruptly, and the roof above him groaned as something alien hissed.


	2. The Monster Crawls Into His Belly

Yuuka tried not to whimper as the floorboards creaked. Her phone was clutched tight in her hands, knuckles white and plastic creaking warningly, the light of the screen displaying only two move sets; ‘Dia’ and ‘Agi’. It was a field exercise; she remembered the imposing Chief saying. The man hadn’t even looked at her, above such low ranked trainees like herself. It was a field exercise, to get acclimated to the demon summoning programme in an outside setting. It was supposed to be safe. Maybe a few burns here and there. A broken bone at worst.

A field exercise.

Her mind kept tripping over those words over and over again. A field exercise. A field exercise. Something safe. It was supposed to be safe. But it wasn’t safe. It – at first, everyone thought it was part of the exercise, that the Chief and his right hand man decided to spring something on them for their own personal amusement. But it- it-

The floorboards creaked again, closer this time, and Yuuka made herself even smaller, until her knees were pressing hard into her breasts, painfully, her lungs burning from lack of air. She bit her bottom lip, her hands shaking violently as she pressed her thumb against the button. Agi. Agi. A weak fire spell, made even weaker by the limitations on these practice apps. She had to try though. She refused – Taka had been _ripped in half_  and she remembered, how, just, the blood-

The half rotted panel to the cupboard she was cowering in was pulled away suddenly, and Yuuka screamed, fumbling at the phone and dropping it in her panic. The noise of clattering plastic echoed sharply, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she lifted her arms up to protect herself from the wicked claws of that thing- that  _thing_ -!

But nothing happened. She quivered, waiting for the inevitable agony of being ripped to shreds, but there was nothing except a low, slow breathing – slightly strained. Still shaking, Yuuka peeked between her arms, seeing narrowed, silver eyes staring down at her.

Chief of JP’s – Yamato Hotsuin – was staring down at her, his form darkened by the lack of light, even though his eyes gleamed brightly in the darkness. It was the only clear thing she could see of him, but she recognised that imposing figure and cold stare from anywhere. Yamato Hotsuin was a man hard to forget.

“O-Oh my god. Oh my god. C-Chief… Chief Hotsuin, I’m…I’m…”

“Enough,” Chief Hotsuin murmured, his voice low and soft. His breathing suddenly hitched, and he tilted his head, those bright eyes slanting away from her to study something just outside the cupboard. “Is it just you here?”

“Y…yeah, I’m, the others…”

“Pick up your phone and follow me,” Chief Hotsuin interrupted, turning away abruptly and striding off. Yuuka scrambled after him, picking up her phone before she left her little cupboard. Chief Hotsuin was moving oddly, she noticed, like the entire left side of his body was a bit heavier than the right.

It was when they were in the hallway, and close to the exit, that Chief Hotsuin stopped and turned around to face her. Yuuka barely managed to stifle a shocked noise – the man’s coat was open, and the front of his shirt was ripped right through, the grey fabric sodden with blood. She couldn’t tell if she was looking at torn fabric of shredded flesh. Her stomach rolled with nausea. She didn’t want to know.

“There is a situation,” Chief Hotsuin said calmly, a smudge of red at the corner of his mouth. “As you are no doubt aware. This is no longer a field exercise. Communications have been jammed, as well as ‘conventional’ demon summoning.” He held his hand out, “Give me your phone and I will release the limiters on it.”

Yuuka held onto the phone, staring at the Chief in open amazement. “What…happened to…?”

“There is no time for such questions,” Chief Hotsuin interrupted. “Give me your phone.”

Yuuka was suddenly uncertain. She was always good with hunches, and right now, something was telling her that – there was something very wrong here. She stared at the Chief’s hand. It was bare. Odd, the man always wore gloves – in fact, in the van, she had the luck of sitting with both Chief Hotsuin and Hibiki Kuze, his right hand man. Kuze babbled about how Yamato had three pairs of spare gloves on him, and even if he stained all of them in blood, he’d still wear them because he hated  _human contact that much_.

“Where’re your gloves, sir…?”

Chief Hotsuin’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, giving her an odd look. It was strange, too, how his eyes were so visible in the dark light. Almost like a cat’s reflecting the light of an incoming car. She – that wasn’t right. It had been dark in the van, and Chief Hotsuin had sat directly across from her (she remembered being breathless with nervousness), and his eyes hadn’t glowed like that either.

She took a step back.

Chief Hotsuin suddenly grinned, fangs flashing as his hand dropped. “Ah, well, I tried.”

Yuuka didn’t fumble this time. She quickly lifted up her phone, thumb pressing resolutely against the selection key – ‘Agi’ lighting up and the smell of smoke before the hallway erupted with light, the small fireball blooming to life-

And Chief Hotsuin swept it aside like it was a leaf in the wind, flicking his wrist and taking a step forward. His eyes were no longer silver. They were yellow. A bright, alien yellow, and Yuuka staggered back, her heart hammering. The hallway led to a dead end, a closet and a room, and this – this wasn’t Yamato Hotsuin  _it was something else but_ -

She threw her phone at the creature, not even waiting to see if it hit it or not as she spun away and bolted. A dead end, but there was a small, broken window she could squeeze through. She was small, she was light. She could claw her way through it, she would escape, warn the others of the Chief Hotsuin imposter – and she almost sobbed when the creature’s laughter – still using Chief Hotsuin’s voice – followed after her, malicious and gleeful. Oh god, oh god

_“Let me tell you a secret about Yamato Hotsuin,” Hibiki had said in a stage-whisper, his smile gentle and obvious to ease her nervousness. “He may seem cold and scary…”_

Yuuka was back in the room, and she almost stumbled over the rotting edge of the tatami mat, crying as she all but clawed at the wall. The window was high and narrow, but she had to make it. She had to, it was coming, it was coming, and Chief Hotsuin’s voice purred her name ( _how did it know her name_ ) somewhere behind her, just as her fingers hooked into the windowsill

_“But he’s a big ol’ softie inside,” Hibiki had finished, shooting the stoic Chief Hotsuin a playful look. “It just takes a lotta licks to get to the sweet centre, if you know what I mean.”_

_“Hibiki, stop telling the recruits filthy lies,” Chief Hotsuin had interrupted, but he was smiling a little, the slightest tilt of his lips that put Yuuka at ease, because he was human after all_ -

A hand suddenly grabbed her ankle, just as she began to wriggle her way through the narrow window, and she screamed as the creature yanked her back. She felt her nails break when they clawed at the rotting wood, and she tumbled out of the window and onto the damp tatami mats. She felt blood in her mouth, having bitten her tongue when her chin struck the floor, the hand tight around her ankle.

“If you just gave it to me, this wouldn't've happened. Now you broke it, and I'm going to have to break _you_ ,” Chief Hotsuin’s voice said gleefully, and she felt something cold and sharp press into the back of her neck, right between the vertebrae. She stilled, her mind still racing – no she couldn’t, it was just a field exercise she had plans for when she got home she was going to visit her mother she couldn’t this was just a field exercise-

“A field exercise?” Chief Hotsuin’s voice laughed in genuine amusement, and Yuuka realised she had been whimpering those words aloud, fervently, wishing this was just a nightmare  _it wasn’t real_! “Ah, well, you’re right.”

A hand grabbed her arm and forced her to roll over onto her back. Yellow eyes stared down at her, glint of white fangs in the darkness, and no, no no no  _no no **no no**_

“For me it is, anyway,” the creature said, and then there was movement somewhere behind it, and Yuuka only had a split second to widen her eyes, stare and  _scream_  before – blood spurt, head snapped round, brains splat blood wall arterial spray-

Chief laugh _in **g. . …**_

 

* * *

 

“Oh thank fuck.”

It hurt to wheeze those words, but Hibiki meant  _each one_ , breathing quickly as Cerberus snuffled his hair curiously. The giant beast looked like it had been through hell and back, its pale fur matted with dirt and blood, but it didn’t seem heavily injured. But to think that something could pick such a fight and leave such wounds on the beast was troubling…

“Cerberus,” Hibiki whispered, and the beast immediately drew back to stare right into his eyes. “Where’s…” he licked his dry lips, his gaze flicking to somewhere behind Cerberus. Yamato was usually never far from his personal demon, so for it to be here, without him was, beyond strange. “Where’s…Yamato…?”

Cerberus suddenly growled, tossing its head and glaring into the darkness. That meant absolutely nothing to Hibiki , but he hazarded that it wasn’t good. Great. Probably whatever roughed him up this badly had gotten to Yamato too. He lifted his hand up, fingers shaking, and curled them into Cerberus’s thick mane. His ribs and neck and head were pounding, but as far as he was aware, his legs were fine. He could, hobble, if need be.

“H-Help me up. We’ve…gotta find him…”

Cerberus huffed, and after five painful minutes, where Hibiki almost fainted several times, he was standing on wobbling legs, with his arm wrapped tightly over Cerberus’s withers, leaning most of his weight on it. With his new vantage point, Hibiki could see that he seemed to be in some sort of basement, filled with choking dust and filled with useless junk and rubble. He could see the stone steps on the far side. How the hell did he get in here…?

“Right…” Hibiki breathed, and he and Cerberus began their slow journey out of the basement. The stairs were slippery, slimy with wet moss, and the door they reached was smashed into kindling, the remains of it hanging pitifully from its rusted hinges. Hibiki and Cerberus gingerly squeezed out of the narrow doorway and into the building proper.

It was a mess. The basement stairs had led them directly into a large kitchen area, the cabinets open and long emptied by rot or local wildlife. There were scrunched up papers, slightly damp and yellowed, scattered on the floor, as well pieces of wood from what Hibiki was guessing to be shutters on the windows. Only one shutter remained on the closest window, hanging pathetically.

Cerberus was on full alert at his side, its ears pricked forwards and yellow eyes staring through the gloom. Although weak sunlight filtered through the narrow window, the room itself was quite dim, and if Hibiki hadn’t spent an indeterminable amount of time in a dark basement, he probably would’ve had to take several minutes to adjust to the gloom. The entire air was heavy, sweet with rot and very damp – a direct contrast to the suffocatingly dry basement.

“Okay…” Hibiki murmured, and they slowly walked forwards. His head was pounding even harder now, and he narrowed his eyes against the black spots merrily dancing in his vision. He was  _thirsty_  as well, he realised, but he didn’t want to chance what water would come out of the taps here. Maybe the van was still here – unless it’d been destroyed. Ugh, this blank space in his memories was really  _annoying_ …

They stepped out of the kitchen, and Hibiki's foot slipped on something slick. He tightened his fingers into Cerberus’s fur, uttering a small cry when the slip made muscles pull along his side agonisingly. He leaned heavily against Cerberus, swallowing down the sudden bout of nausea as he panted, suddenly feeling lightheaded. Don’t faint, come on, Hibiki . Suck it up. C’mon. You’ve dealt with worse. With worse…

Cerberus nudged his stomach with its muzzle, and Hibiki straightened up slowly, still breathing hard as pain lingered at his nerves. What did he slip on? It was damp, but not  _wet_  here-

He looked down and immediately wished he didn’t.

Sprawled out near the kitchen door, was one of the trainees. Their face was nothing more than clawed meat, their chest caved in, and their stomach – Hibiki got a violent flashback to Yamato whimpering in pain, his guts spilled out onto the dirt floor while chaos and fire raged around them – and very nearly threw up for a different reason entirely. He swallowed thickly, forcing himself to look away. He didn’t recognise the trainee, that was the worst part. Hibiki took it upon himself to try and learn every name, every face, of the group, and…

Cerberus moved forwards, and Hibiki stumbled before meeting its slow steps. Right. Right he had to find Yamato. He and Yamato were the only ones who could fight without their phones, so if he found him, they could round up the remaining trainees, protect them, call Makoto for back up somehow – one of the trainees’ phones must work…

The floorboards creaked loudly as they shuffled slowly down the hallway. They met one other trainee. The back of their head was gone, leaving pulpy grey matter on the floor. They must have been running away when whatever attacked them crushed the back of its skull. Claws. Whatever that creature was, it had claws. Strong, sharp ones.

The exit didn’t have a door, and the pale mist outside lingered close against the sweet green grass. There was an eerie silence outside, and Hibiki felt his lips twitch into a wry smile, his face still pale and eyes still frightened. Silent Knoll. Ha… ha ha, that, was no longer a joke, huh? He half expected a grotesque monster to come skittering out of the ceiling to rip his head off at this point.

Hibiki tugged at Cerberus’s fur, and they stepped out into the open. Dew was collecting on the grass, and he could feel the dampness soak into his socks as the long blades of grass slipped under the hem of his trousers. He couldn’t even see three feet away from him, and even Cerberus was letting out deep, guttural breaths, its ears twitching frantically. Everything was muffled, and Hibiki never felt so isolated than he did then, deep in the fog.

Which was why it was surprising when he was suddenly ran into – _painfully_.

The next moments were filled with  _pain_  and shouting and wet grass against his cheek and Cerberus letting out a roar. Hibiki thought he was being attacked at first, and even though his head felt like it was going to split open and he was half blinded by black and white spots swirling in his vision, Hibiki managed to swing his elbow to crack it against whatever it was was one his back, and there was a cry of pain – a  _human_  cry of pain-

The weight was suddenly gone, and Hibiki rolled onto his back to see that Cerberus had clamped its jaws into the back of the attacker’s shirt, lifting them almost completely off of the ground. Hibiki rubbed his head, painfully sitting up as everything spun sickeningly. He really needed a ‘dia’, fucking hell…

“P-Please don’t, don’t- I didn’t-!” the attacker was babbling, their arms flailing as they tried and failed to escape Cerberus’s jaws. It was one of trainees, Hibiki realised belatedly. A young man with short, dark hair, and flecks of blood on his face. He looked out of his mind with pure terror, and truthfully, Hibiki didn’t blame him if all of the trainees were being hunted down and slaughtered.

“Hey, hey…” Hibiki began, his voice rough and hoarse. He was soundly ignored, the trainee’s hysteria growing with each moment. Hibiki sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Normally he’d be sympathetic, but…

Cerberus dropped the trainee, and immediately smacked its paw onto his lower back, forcing all of the wind out of him. It stopped his babbling, but now he was letting out pathetic, wheezing noises, the trainee’s fingers curled tightly into the wet grass beneath him, entire body trembling violently. Hibiki stared at him, then stared at the fog pressing close to them.

“Y-You’re…you…?”

“Huh?” Hibiki looked back at the trainee. Dark eyes were staring at him, suddenly full of suspicion.

“You’re… you, you’re…  Hibiki, Hibiki Kuze? R-Right?” The trainee squirmed a little – Shuu, Hibiki remembered suddenly, “The right-hand man…”

“Yeah…?” Hibiki said slowly, thoroughly puzzled.  They both stared at each other for a long moment, and Hibiki must’ve passed some sort of test, because Shuu abruptly sagged, almost crying into the grass from what seemed like relief.

“Oh, thank god, thank god, thank god,” he whispered frantically. “It’s you, Kuze, it’s you, I, oh god…”

Hibiki and Cerberus exchanged confused looks. He understood being relieved, but this reaction was a little exaggerated...

“Um, yeah, it's me,” Hibiki said gently. “Can you tell me what happ-"

“Chief Hotsuin is killing everyone!” the trainee abruptly burst. “He’s – he’s killing everyone! I saw him, he, it – no, it, its eyes, those weren’t Chief Hotsuin’s eyes, but it was his voice and his, it was him, and he was… he was…!”

Hibiki was stunned to silence. Chief Hotsuin – Yamato was killing everyone? Yamato was... killing...? The words didn't mesh right in his head, pressing together like incorrect jigsaw pieces. The guy could get pissy every one in a while, but he didn't have a sadistic bone in his body. There was no way he would just go around  _killing_ people (no, not when Yamato had been sitting in that van, with that expression of exasperated fondness when Hibiki took his phone off of him) so it, it had to be... a mistake!

“Wrong...” Hibiki muttered, before shaking his head and cutting into the Shuu's soft, whimpering, mumblings. “Hey,” he said quietly, “Mind backing up a bit? Are you... are you  _sure_  it’s Chief Hotsuin? It could be- be an imposter, or, or a demon taking his form.”

“I don’t – it only takes his form then,” Shuu whispered into the grass, his voice muffled a little, “I met, I met him, the actual Chief, not long ago. He was, he was himself, and unlike the others uninjured, and then, something… _something_  tore through the ceiling. I – I ran, Chief Hotsuin stayed behind, and, when I met him next, he…  he looked like he was _dead_. His front was ripped up, he was bleeding so much, and his eyes, those… weren’t his eyes…”

Hibiki had to think for a moment. He cradled his pounding head in his hands, swallowing down the coppery taste in his mouth. He hadn’t bitten his tongue, he knew that at this point, but he couldn’t worry about internal injuries or broken ribs right now. Yamato was acting normally when this guy met him, then afterwards, was injured and killing people? Shape-shifting demon or possession…? But, could Yamato even be possessed? The thought just didn’t even compute in his brain.

“How… did you escape from him?” Hibiki asked slowly. “If he was killing everyone…?”

“I heard Yuuka screaming, in the building not far from here,” Shuu muttered, his tone suddenly twisting with anguish. “I ran to it as fast as I could, and he, he had, killed her. He killed her, he killed  _Yuuka_. I, her neck, her head, it was, blood everywhere, and, then he saw me, and, and he – he asked me  _for my phone_.”

“Your phone?” Hibiki echoed in confusion. “Why would he…” The phones were limited. Possessed or not, Yamato couldn’t do much damage with it. The only thing that wasn’t handicapped were the healing spells, and if he was going around murdering everyone, he certainly didn’t need it. It had a direct access to JP’s communication lines though-

Hibiki stilled.

Chief Hotsuin requesting backup on the JP’s main line, calling more JP’s members here, more  _powerful_  JP’s members, shit. He would have to  _ask_ for the phones too, because the phones automatically switched off permanently when its user died, to prevent them from going wild or rogue…

Shit shit shit. Hibiki straightened up, breathing in deeply when his head felt like it was wobbling from his shoulders. “Did you give it to him?”

“H-Hell no! I just, I ran, he was, he was right behind me until I – met you. I thought you were…”

Hibiki stared at his hands in his lap, straining his hearing. It was simply quiet, the only noise being Shuu’s heavy, frightened breathing echoing around them. There was no crunch of grass, no footsteps, not even the sound of birdsong. Nothing. Isolated.

“Hey, can you use your phone for a moment?” Hibiki asked suddenly. “I need a Dia.”

Shuu gave him a scrutinising look, but Hibiki must have looked awful, because he nodded slowly. Cerberus removed its paw from his back, and the trainee straightened up, his fingers trembling as he pawed at his pocket, pulling out and flipping open the phone. A second later, healing magic washed over him. It was weak, but Hibiki's head didn’t feel like it was going to explode, and breathing was a little easier.

“Thanks,” Hibiki rubbed at his face. “Okay. I have no idea what’s going on right now. Yamato wouldn’t just snap and start murdering everything, so obviously he’s either an imposter or being possessed. But...” He looked at Cerberus, who was staring back at him just as intently, "Cerberus is here, which means Yamato is alive and  _conscious,_ which strikes out the possibility of him being possessed. So where..."  _So where was the real Yamato Hotsuin, and why wasn't he contacting JP’s for backup?_

“...we'll figure it out later. Let’s try and round up the survivors, and tackle Bizarro-Yamato, first, okay?” Hibiki said. Shuu nodded, swallowing thickly. It was a start, but, this whole thing still didn't make sense. Cerberus was here, which meant Yamato couldn't be possessed, but at the same time, why would a demon take on Yamato's form if the real one was still running around unhindered? Demons normally killed those they took the form of...

Damn it... _if_ Yamato had been possessed, though, that meant he was severely compromised. Hibiki knew how messy possession could get – he knew how people after being exorcised were normally  _broken_ , as the demon liked to take chunks and pieces of the host’s soul for snacks, gnawing holes and chasms inside of them until they were just a pathetic shell of themselves. To have that happen to Yamato would be... 

But, he’d cross that bridge when he reached it.

He hauled himself to his feet with a groan, Cerberus immediately moving to his side to help him. Shuu stood up with him, looking about himself worriedly, his fingers tight around his phone. Thankfully Cerberus could protect them better than the handicapped phone…

“Let’s go.” 

Whatever it was out there... Hibiki was going to put an end to it. 


End file.
